I’m going to keep beating this drum until I’m blue in the face. Prime Video’s big-budget Citadel spy series that reportedly cost $300 million may have flopped with critics as well as fans when it hit the streamer back in 2023, but the glossy, futuristic franchise is nevertheless moving forward with multiple international spinoffs, including the Italian-language Citadel: Diana that’s set to arrive on the streamer next month. And if you love quality spy drama as much as I do, this new series — starring Matilda de Angelis — absolutely deserves to be given a chance.
Prime released the first trailer for the high-concept Citadel: Diana, which debuts globally on Oct. 10, and it stars de Angelis as Diana Cavalieri. She’s an undercover agent of the Citadel spy agency and fighting a powerful enemy syndicate in a near-future version of Milan. The story is set in 2030, years after Citadel has been destroyed by the enemy syndicate Manticore. Continues Prime Video:
“Since then, Diana Cavalieri (Matilda De Angelis), an undercover Citadel agent, is alone, trapped behind enemy lines as a mole in Manticore. When she finally sees a way out and the chance to disappear forever, the only way to do so is trusting the most unexpected ally, Edo Zani (Lorenzo Cervasio), the heir of Manticore Italy and son of the head of the Italian organization, Ettore Zani (Maurizio Lombardi), who’s vying for leadership against the other European families.”
Now, why am I so gung-ho about this new series? There are actually multiple reasons. One is the fact that Citadel: Diana was produced by Cattleya, the Italian film and TV production company behind one of the greatest TV dramas of all time — the gritty mafia series Gomorrah. Just as important, perhaps more so, is the presence of de Angelis, an incredible leading lady whose starring role here alone makes Citadel: Diana worth checking out all by itself.
Basically, ignore what you may have disliked about the original Citadel series (which, no surprise, has a 51% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes). Given that Citadel: Diana is set in Italy, there’s also a futuristic-meets-Old World vibe to this spinoff, which is to say it adds the kind of visuals that I really think will make you feel like you’re watching a totally new series. That, coupled with the incredible talent both in front of and behind the camera on this one, has me incredibly hopeful that, once it’s all said and done, I might even end up adding this series to my list of must-watch spy dramas from all the major streamers.
